We can't turn back the clock. But can we mend what's broken, reconstructing the past's shattered pieces so that we might keep on ticking into the future?

That's the question - or one of them - in Stephen Massicotte's "The Clockmaker," the 100-minute play that Next Act Theatre unveiled over the weekend, under Mary MacDonald Kerr's direction. | Feb. 3, 2013»Read Full Article

He's My Brother She's My Sister frontman Rob Kolar (the gentleman in the top hat) is listening to the new Foxygen album right now. Photo courtesy of Big Hassle Publicity. | April 19, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

Madison - Republican lawmakers are making a move to end a state Department of Transportation program that funnels up to $15 million a year into murals, landscaping, stamped concrete and other aesthetic features to ensure community buy-in for road and bridge projects.

The GOP lawmakers are also targeting for elimination plans to install color-changing decorative lights on Milwaukee's Hoan Bridge. They say money for such projects should go toward roads. | April 19, 2013»Read Full Article(186)

Friday’s breaking-news coverage of the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers had the sprawl of an action film, the tension of spy novel and the anything-can-happen uncertainty of live television.

It was both gripping spectacle and a monotonous exercise in network and cable news obfuscation. It had rampant speculation, erroneous and contradictory on-scene reporting, and comments from family members and acquaintances in lieu of actual developments. | April 19, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(6)

After releasing "Same Trailer Different Park," a strong early contender for the best Country album of the year, last month, Kacey Musgraves has made her way across the media landscape with radio interviews, high-profile TV spots and an impressive stop at the Grand Ole Opry.

One of her media stops was a live performance for AOL Sessions that is now available for on-demand viewing. The five song set - watch it in the embedded playlist below - captures the refreshing real-life songwriting and musical creativity that marks her debut album. (You can read my review of "Same Trailer Different Park" here.) | April 19, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

The extensive search for the Boston Marathon bombers Friday make events in Robert Redford's new film "The Company You Keep," partially set in Milwaukee, look archaic.

Redford, who directed, also stars as a former member of a group of domestic terrorists sought by the FBI. They are former Vietnam War radicals involved in a bank robbery and murder of a security guard. | April 19, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

NBC has canceled Thursday's episode of its lurid serial killer series "Hannibal" because it features a plot involving child killing. It will substitute another episode. | April 19, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

"In spring," wrote the poet Alfred Tennyson, "a young man's fancy turns lightly to thoughts of love." Hah! He obviously never experienced spring in Wisconsin and he certainly never watched water seeping into his ruddy basement, which is why my first pick this month is Sarah Graves' "A Bat in the Belfry" (Bantam, $26), the latest in her stylishly suspenseful Home Repair Is Homicide series.

Living in a 19th-century house that needs more "maintenance than your average space shuttle," Graves' main character, Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree, and Ellie White, her "unofficial sleuthing" partner, are doing their best to keep their lives drama-free. But as a "gullywhumper" of a storm thrashes Eastport, Maine, the two are forced to get involved when a childhood friend of Jake's son, Sam, becomes the main suspect in the murder of a teenager who, on a bet, climbed into the 200-year-old belfry where she met her death. As "the wind yowl(s) a banshee chorus," and a dangerous tide rises, Sam goes missing and the investigation crashes onto Jake's doorstep. | April 19, 2013»Read Full Article

Steffens' Sound and Fury tattoos reflect her work on a production of "Macbeth."

When the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts wanted someone to write a play for its Avant Garde Coffeehouse Project, someone who could listen to the folk and blues music of the '60s, read the articles and the oral histories, look at the historical photos, digest and distill all that source material and fashion a drama that could capture the spirit of those times in a way that matters now, the school turned to the most logical person:

A 23-year-old punk-rock singer emblazoned with tattoos. | April 19, 2013»Read Full Article

Late in the first act of Theresa Rebeck's "Spike Heels" - now being staged by Smithereen Productions, under Rebecca Segal's direction - two men in a Boston apartment are vehemently arguing about whether one of them should be dating the woman living upstairs. Both men are oblivious to the woman herself, who is standing in the hall, knocking and waiting to be let in.

That vignette tells you a lot about what's going on in this play, in which the guys' ostensible focus on women is always really more about themselves - and their fractious relationship with each other. | April 19, 2013»Read Full Article

"Silver Sparrow," her third novel, chronicles two African-American families in Atlanta that are connected by a bigamist father. In his 2011 review of the novel for the Journal Sentinel, Mike Fischer wrote that Jones' women "are all drawn well, from the sisters and their mothers to minor characters such as the sisters' dying grandmother and Gwen's wisecracking friend, Willie Mae. The exchanges between mothers and daughters are often moving and always ring true." | April 19, 2013»Read Full Article

Congratulations to the Book Bags, a Milwaukee book club that's won a basket of books from the Journal Sentinel in connection with Food Editor Nancy Stohs' fabulous package of stories on what and how book clubs eat at their get-togethers. | April 19, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

Shelton's latest album, "Based on a True Story . . . ," is No. 4 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Shelton's also been busy with his other job - as one of the judge-mentors on NBC's singing-competition show "The Voice.". | April 19, 2013»Read Full Article

A native of Hawaii, Shimabukuro first gained attention - and a huge Web following - with a YouTube video of him performing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." After scoring a world-music hit with 2011's "Peace, Love, Ukulele," he released "Grand Ukulele," an album recorded with a full orchestra and produced by legendary producer Alan Parsons, last fall. | April 19, 2013»Read Full Article

Going to the Italian restaurant Divino Wine & Dine on the east side is a little like walking into an embrace.

I mean that figuratively - mostly. The Italian restaurant feels warm, and so does the reception from the staff, some of whom have honed their hospitality skills over decades in the business. | April 19, 2013»Read Full Article(3)

The successor to Johnny Carson and host of NBC's "Tonight" for 22 years - aside from the infamous seven-month fiasco in 2009 and 2010 when he hosted a poorly received prime-time variety hour - Leno has been in the news a lot lately since reports surfaced that he would be replaced by "Late Night" host Jimmy Fallon. A ratings spike for "Tonight" and several monologue jokes at NBC's expense ensued; network executives confirmed this month Leno will leave "Tonight" next spring. | April 19, 2013»Read Full Article(2)